Telus joins forces with Rdio: Offers Direct Billing

Telus announced today that they've partnered with Rdio to offer streaming music services. Rdio was launched in 2010 by former Skype founder Janus Friis. They offer nearly 9 million songs on demand, and incorporates social networking elements into their service.

The Telus partnership come evident in carrier billing at a cost of $10/month. Might not seem like a big deal for most, but for mr it means one less thing to remember to pay each month. That price gives you unlimited access to all tracks on the PC, Mac, iOS (iPhone and iPad apps), Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

TELUS and Rdio to Partner to Take the Social Music Experience to the Next Level

Music fans will easily enjoy Rdio’s unlimited, on-demand social music service on their smartphones through convenient direct billing

Toronto, ON – TELUS and Rdio today announced that they intend to enter into an agreement that will give TELUS smartphone customers the ability to subscribe to Rdio, an unlimited, on-demand social music service, via their existing TELUS account. Rdio, founded by the creators of Skype, is the first service in Canada to bring social music discovery to mobile devices, giving users instant access to a growing catalogue of nearly nine million songs. Direct carrier billing will provide TELUS customers with a secure, convenient, and easy way to subscribe to Rdio, and to access and share their music on the go.

Rdio is changing the way people discover, share and listen to music. For $10/month, Rdio users can play any song, album, artist and playlist as many times as they like, without ever hearing a single ad. Users also have access to new albums the day they are released. With Rdio, users can discover new and old favourites, and follow friends, people with similar musical tastes, recording artists and other influencers to see what they are listening to, and even collaborate on playlists. Rdio makes music sharing effortless thanks to integration with Facebook and Twitter which enables users to easily share their favourite songs, albums and playlists with friends.

Rdio syncs seamlessly across all of the user’s screens: PC and Mac computers, tablets, and of course smartphones, including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7. That means users can pick up exactly where they left off, regardless of the device they’re listening on. Rdio also enables users to sync music to their mobile devices, so they can listen offline when there is no mobile signal or Internet connection.

“TELUS is focused on curating the best Internet-based services for our mobile customers by partnering with innovative service providers who are leading on the global stage. We want to deliver a superior customer experience by making it easy for our customers to enjoy the best of what brands like Rdio have to offer and empower them to choose the services that are right for them,” said Brent Johnston, vice-president of mobility solutions at TELUS. “Our customers have told us that being able to customize their mobile experience with the services they want is important to them. TELUS wants to make that easier, and of course to ensure their experience is second to none on Canada’s fastest* coast-to-coast 4G network.”

Direct, one-click billing will make it easy for TELUS customers and new Rdio subscribers to enjoy the social music service. Customers simply create a profile, download the Rdio app, and subscribe. They can then pay their monthly Rdio subscription directly through TELUS and view the charge on their TELUS bill. Rdio has a similar direct carrier billing arrangement with U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless in the United States.

“Our integration with TELUS will make it even easier for Canadian customers to enjoy music in a way they have never experienced before,” said Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio. “Rdio’s ability to sync music across so many different platforms and devices gives them this freedom, with the added convenience of direct carrier billing.”

*Based on TELUS’ tests of data throughput speeds in large Canadian urban centres.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.9 billion of annual revenue and 12.3 million customer connections including 7 million wireless subscribers, 3.7 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and more than 350,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees will, by year-end 2011, have contributed $245 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Ten TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com. To learn more about TELUS' commitment to the community, please visit TELUS.com/community.

About Rdio

Rdio is an unlimited, on-demand social music service that brings music alive by letting subscribers listen to as many songs as they want, anytime, anywhere, and discover and share new music with friends. Rdio subscribers build and share their online music collections from a catalogue of almost 9 million songs and can check out the listening activity, collections and playlists of other users and influencers as well as see what's in heavy rotation in their network, top charts, and newly released albums. Subscribers can access Rdio on a variety of platforms including web, Mac and Windows desktop clients, mobile phone applications for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7, iPad, in-home devices like Sonos and Roku and in the car on Pioneer AppRadio. Rdio was founded by Janus Friis, one of the founders of Skype and is funded by Atomico, Janus Friis through his investment entities, Mangrove Capital Partners and Skype. For more information please visit Rdio.